Warehouse Shopping and Tactics
Posted By Susan on May 2, 2009
We discovered Price Club — which later became Costco — over 20 years ago, when we first moved to California. Back in New York, there were membership savings clubs (“Hey Jerry! What’s the story?”), but they were generally limited to home entertainment and appliance products, and you had to be a teacher, policeman, or fireman (very few women doing this back then!). It was a solid 30 minute drive to Price Club, so we didn’t just pop in on a whim, and we learned to plan what we wanted and not buy, say, 20 pounds of tortilla chips that would get stale before we could eat them.
Then they built a Costco practically just down the road from us (which out here means 15 miles away), and that was good. Sam’s Club then opened 1/4 mile from Costco, the way Wal-Marts open near K-Marts — they aggressively go after the business — and we got in the mail a free day pass. We made a list and walked the place together, commenting on Sam’s versus Costco in terms of what we could see. Then we bought and compared fruits, vegetables, ground beef (90% lean) and fish of the same quality bought the same day from each store. We liked the taste of Sam’s meats better, but we prefer the greater variety of vegetables and fruits at Costco, as well as their prepared, ready-to-eat food. Costco has more of the techie stuff David likes. They both have similar types of the gardening stuff I like. They are both 80% stores (as in, we find 80% of everything we ever shop for at these stores).
We have a sticky note pad on the fridge. On it, we all write food and other things to buy as we think of them. Then, I work up menu ideas, check food supplies that we do have, and augment the list. Once a month or so, we plan a major shopping trip to both stores (although we do make more frequent trips to Costco for cat litter and to Sam’s for cheese and burgers). In the summer, we bring an empty cooler with us to make sure the frozen food stays frozen. With two shopping carts and our cell phones we divide and conquer — having assigned areas to shop and products to get. Also this way if David wants to linger at electronics, I don’t get fidgety. And we both get to sample the foods offered 
After tracking our expenses and savings, we found it was worth it to stay with both of them. Overall we spend 2/3 of our warehouse dollars at Costco (where we bought an “Executive Membership” which gets us an extra discount that more than pays for the upgrade) and 1/3 at Sam’s.
Warehouse Club Tactics
http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2008/08/5-Ways-to-Beat-Inflation-at-Warehouse-Clubs.html